US President Trump unleashed a tweet storm today bashing Senate Democrats for blocking a spending deal for the government that would force a shutdown. Trump’s Twitter tirade — six messages over the course of just two minutes — came a day before an expected congressional vote on appropriations that would seek to avoid a shutdown of the federal government.
As families prepare for summer vacations in our National Parks – Democrats threaten to close them and shut down the government. Terrible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
Democrats used to support border security — now they want illegals to pour through our borders.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
Democrats jeopardizing the safety of our troops to bail out their donors from insurance companies. It is time to put #AmericaFirst??
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
What's more important? Rebuilding our military – or bailing out insurance companies? Ask the Democrats.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
I promise to rebuild our military and secure our border. Democrats want to shut down the government. Politics!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
I want to help our miners while the Democrats are blocking their healthcare.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
The Democrats want to shut government if we don't bail out Puerto Rico and give billions to their insurance companies for OCare failure. NO!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2017
Congress has until Friday midnight to pass a bill to fund the government or face a shutdown, which would temporarily lay off hundreds of thousands of federal workers. The House GOP leaders have moved quickly to vote on a one-week temporary funding measure that would give them more time for negotiations with Democrats. However, the Democrats have threatened to block the temporary spending extension if there isn’t a bipartisan deal on the budget that would carry through September. Democrats are opposed to riders on abortion, environment and financial regulations to the budget bill, something the Democrats call “poison pill” riders. Interestingly, the GOP has majority in both the House and the Senate, but it needs Democrat support because many traditional Republicans vote against the big budget bill (the budget amounts to $1 trillion in this case).
Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell has, however, stated that the GOP would pass the temporary spending measure without seeking Democrat support.
The talks involving congressional Republicans and Democrats on the trillion dollar budget had progressed relatively smoothly after the White House earlier this week backed off a threat to withhold payments that help lower-income Americans pay their medical bills and Trump dropped a demand for money for the border wall. After the U.S.-Mexico wall issue and the Obamacare controversy were addressed, negotiators turned to a lengthy roster of unfinished issues, many of which involve extraneous policy “riders” on the environment and financial services regulations. The policy riders have been an old bone of contention, with much fighting in Obama’s term as president, and it seems it is now the Democrats turn to unleash shutdowns of the kind that the Republicans did.
Democrats dismissed such accusations.
“We are never going to shut government down. In fact, we don’t even have the power to do so,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Referring to Republicans, she said: “They have the majority. They have the president. They have the Senate. They have the House. Any shutting down of government, the ball is in their court.”
